1. Sprinting to Unlock the Full Potential of SAP Solution Manager
Craig Brown
SAP Application & Enhancement Manager, Contact Energy

2. What I’ll Cover Contact Energy
The SAP Solution Manager implementation challenge
Vision, journey and roadmap
The journey to date
The future
Questions
Key Points to Take Home

3. $2.9b Our net assets are $2.9 billion (at 31 December 2016)
About Contact Energy
$2.9b Our net assets are $2.9 billion (at 31 December 2016)
166 (gross)
of geothermal generation commissioned May 2014
1,066 We employ 1,066 people from Auckland to Invercargill
1 New Zealand’s only
underground gas storage facility
11 Contact owns and operates 11 power stations throughout New Zealand
556k Contact has 556,000 customers across electricity, gas and LPG
5 Geothermal stations in the central North Island
22% We supply 22 per cent of the New Zealand electricity and gas retail markets (at 31 December 2016)
23% Contact generates around a quarter of New Zealand’s electricity
2 Hydro power stations at Roxburgh and Clyde
71,000 Contact is one of New Zealand’s largest listed companies with around 71,000 shareholders across our NZX and ASX listings
84%
Proportion of electricity Contact generated from renewable resources in 2016 MW

4. Where we Operate

5. The Challenge
Demystifying SAP Solution Manager can seem overwhelming, daunting even – but we found a way through

6. Our Vision Solution manager vision: In doing so we would then:
Run SAP like a factory
Application Lifecycle control
Pro-active
In doing so we would then:
Reduce the total cost of ownership
Increase efficiency
Mitigate change risk
Add to the bottom line

7. Where to Start? - “SAP Solution Manager” SAP Related Seminars:
5,370,000 results
NZ – 6,210 results
AU – 51,600 results
- “SAP Solution Manager”
40,725 SCN Forums
2,895 SCN Wiki
10,099 SAP Notes
SAP Related Seminars:
SAP HANA
SAP Solution Manager

8. Initial Investment in Solution Manager
Initial implementation:
Business blueprint defined
Configuration management
No champion
Next major project did not use Solution Manager
Lots of talk

9. Our Reference Point

10. Our Starting Point Solution Manager 7.1 - Contact Usage & Roadmap Area
Function
Tool
Priority
Implementation
Setup
Document Management
Project Administration
Solution Landscape
System Landscape
Run SAP like a Factory
Business Process Operations
Business Process Configuration 1
Business Process Monitoring 2
Business Process Performance
Data Consistency Management 4
Implementation Content
0 - Base set-up. Pre-requisite for future work
Interface Monitoring
1 - Core functions to be implemented prior to Retail
Job Scheduling Management
2 - To be implemented post Retail
Technical Operations
BI Monitoring
3 - Future road-map item, high priority
Business Process & Interface Monitoring
4 - Future road-map item, low priority
Data Volume Management
5 - Unlikely to be looked at
End User Experience Monitoring
PI Monitoring
Root Cause Analysis
System Monitoring
Technical Administration
Technical Analytics

11. Road Map
Today

12. The Environment

13. Technical Monitoring – What to Monitor?

14. Technical Monitoring Standard list of SAP alerts
Gathered multiple inputs
First cut determined
Tweaking and tuning
Communicating the alerts
We knew before the users

15. Technical Monitoring Used extensively to check:
Are all systems available?
Are all interfaces working?
Is there sufficient space in the database?
Is there sufficient space in the file systems?
How many ABAP dumps are there?
Are there any critical errors in SAP work process logs?
Is the database backup OK?
Are there any Java exceptions?
Are there many entries in the RFC queues?

16. Technical Monitoring – Planning Your Alerts

17. Technical Monitoring – Graphical Interface

18. Technical Monitoring – Alert Inbox

19. Technical Monitoring – Email Notifications

20. Technical Monitoring – Lessons Learnt
Ongoing refinement is critical

21. Technical Monitoring – Lessons Learnt
Earn and maintain confidence
Robust process to manage alerts
Get an independent review
Update the spread sheet
Measure your progress

22. Root Cause Analysis Extensive performance testing phase
Tools to support the testing:
End-to-End Trace Analysis
Wily Introscope
The tools for the data centre move

23. How We Used End-to-End Trace Analysis
Scenario
Testers complained of high response times when saving a Business Partner and Contract
These transactions are updated in CRM and then replicate to ECC
E2E Trace Analysis Steps
Enable Trace
Record Activity using Client
Plug-In
Collect Trace Data
Review process flow
Analyse in detail to identify
problem

24. End to End Trace Analysis

25. How We Used End-to-End Trace Analysis
Server Analysis showed significant time in a RFC call to TREX

26. Wily Introscope – How We Used It
Monitor and report on performance
Various job mixes were run during day and night
Wily used to used to check what happened:
Host Triage (CPU Util%, Disk Util%, Paging, LAN Packets)
ABAP Triage (Free Processes, %Users, ICM/Gateway connections)
Java/Portal Triage (Threads, Memory, Http Sessions, Garbage Collection)
Only very basic use of PI and BI Monitoring

27. Wily Introscope – How We Used It – Check Monitors

28. End-User Experience Monitoring
Location specific performance
Why is it important for us?
Data Centre in Australia
multiple locations
Robots installed at different locations
Experience latency issues

29. How We Use EEM – Example Result

30. Solution Documentation
Business blueprint developed
Different options evaluated
SharePoint solution with link
All stakeholders can access
No ARIS integration

31. ChaRM Pre-configured “Add-on” Four-tier business-as-usual environment
ChaRM for both SAP and non-SAP changes
Retrofit and Repack functions used
Change diagnostics for reconciliations

32. ChaRM – The Benefits Has introduced good disciplines
Standardised process for managing change
Facilitated the documentation of changes
A robust approval process of changes
No non-approved changes
Manages code conflicts
A one stop shop for change history

33. ChaRM – The Challenges Pre-configured solution was buggy
Four-tier landscape created challenges
End-user adoption has been slow
Multiple process iterations
Status management

34. Test Management Multiple concurrent projects Reusable test library
Test Workbench
CBTA
BPCA to optimise testing

35. CDMC and SEA Benefits: How:
Reduced effort and cost in testing and maintaining custom code
Early estimation of project effort & cost
How:
Clearing Analysis
Change Impact Analysis
Test scope optimisation

36. CDMC and SEA

37. What’s Next Upgrade to Solution Manager 7.2
Potential implementation of process modeller as a replacement to ARIS
Dashboards
Solution Manager on mobility apps
BI and PI monitoring
Business Process monitoring
Job Monitoring – currently use Control-M

38. Key Points to Take Home Solution Manager roadmap is key
Don’t be daunted or overwhelmed
Plan and review your technical monitoring
Size your technical requirements
Monitor the performance of Solution Manager
Quality resources out there help
Before you start take a deep breath!

40. How To Contact Me E: craig.brown@contactenergy.co.nz M: +64 274 653316P:
Li: linkedin.com/in/craig-brown-0a3a64/